• In words of French origin ga tends to have stress on the final syllable

RP GA

Ballet [blei] [blei]

Beret [berei] [brei]

• Some words have first-syllable stress in GA whereas in RP the stress may be on any syllable

RP GA

Address [dres] [dres]

Cigarette [sigret] [sigrt]

Magazine [mgzi:n] [mgzi:n]

Research [ris:t] [ri:s:t]

Adult [dlt] [dlt]

Absolutely [bslutli] [bslutli]

Intonation differences:

GA intonation has a general resemblance to that of RP. But anyway there are a few differences:

• Level head (ровная шкала) – mid-level – is very common with Americans. Thus the statement with a gradual descending sequence.

RP: I don’t want to go to the theatre.

This statement will be realized with the mid-level head

GA: I don’t want to go to the theatre.

The fall-rise tone is different in RP and in GA.

RP: really

GA: really

The main differences in intonation concern the direction of the voice pitch and the realization of the terminal tones. In GA the voice doesn’t fall to the bottom mostly. This explains the fact, that English speech for Americans sounds affected, pretentious or even sophisticated. And for the English Americans sound dull, monotonous, indifferent, unemotional and even dry.

Basically British intonation has wider melodic curves (кривые) and more rapid changes than American intonation.

The distribution of terminal tones in sentence types is also different in both variants of English.

• GA “yes/no” questions most commonly have a falling terminal tone whereas RP tone is a rising one.

RP: Shall we stay here?

GA: Shall we stay here?

• Requests in RP are normally pronounced with rise, while in GA they may take a fall rise.

RP: Open the books.

GA: Open the books.

• Leave-taking (слова, сказанные на прощание) are often pronounced with a high-pitched

fall-rise in RP.

Лекция 5

Connected speech – связная речь

Flow of speech – поток речи

Fluent, rapid speech – беглая речь

Partially – частично

Assimilation – ассимиляция

Accommodation – аккомодация

Elision – элизия

Alteration – изменение

Interaction – интерактивность, взаимодействие

Cluster – пучок, группа

To preserve – сохранять

To merge – сливаться

Mutual – обоюдный

Reciprocal – обоюдный

Preceding – предшествующий

Modifications of sounds in connected speech

1. Assimilation

2. Elision

3. Vowel reduction

4. Accommodation

As it is known the complete articulation of a speech sound when said in isolation consists of three stages:

1. On-glide, during which the articulating organs move to the position necessary for the articulation of a sound.

2. Holed stage, during which the articulating organs are kept in the position for a certain period of time.

3. Off-glide, during which the articulating organs return to the position of rest.

Actually, speech sounds are seldom said by themselves, they are used in combination with other sounds in connected speech. Speech sounds influence each other in the flow speech (поток речи), normally in the process of speech the articulatory organs are moving continuously and the sounds merge into one another. Often these 3 stages of articulation are not preserved (не сохраняются). The off-glide of the preceding sounds serves as the on-glide of the following sound.